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Futures on the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) are trading flat-to-lower versus fair value this morning, pointing toward a weak start to the regular session. Despite round of positive economic data out of Europe and Asia, a round of downgrades from Moody's Services has Wall Street on edge. Specifically, Moody’s dropped Spain’s sovereign-debt rating by two notches, cut Italy and Portugal by one notch, and lowered its ratings outlook for France, the U.K., and Austria to negative.

Against this backdrop, Dow Mini futures are trading 6 points below fair value, while futures on both the S&P 500 Index (SPX) and Nasdaq Mini are trading flat with fair value.

In equity news, Apple (AAPL) shares are trading higher in premarket activity, after the Dow Jones Newswires reported that the company is testing a new, smaller version of the iPad. According to the infamous "people familiar with the matter," the iPad mini has a screen size of about eight inches. Apple closed Monday at an all-time high above $500.

Elsewhere, shares of Rackspace Hosting (RAX) have soared more than 9% in electronic trading, after the company posted a profit of $25 million, or 18 cents per share, in the fourth quarter. Revenue rose to $283.3 million. Wall Street was expecting earnings of 15 cents per share on revenue of $281 million.

Call volume once again rose to the forefront on Monday, with traders reacting to solid day of trading in the equities market. Overall, 2.1 million calls and nearly 2 million puts traded on the Chicago Board Options Exchange (CBOE) yesterday, resulting in a single-session CBOE put/call volume ratio of 0.88. For comparison, the ratio's 10-day moving average rests at 0.86.

As you might suspect, the majority of Monday's call volume was concentrated on equities. In fact, these typically bullish bets nearly doubled their bearish counterparts yesterday, with the single-session CBOE equity put/call volume ratio arriving at 0.53. Meanwhile, puts were popular on indexes, as the CBOE single-session index put/call volume ratio edged higher to 1.48. Traders often use index puts to hedge portfolios and long stock positions.

Call volume on the CBOE Volatility Index's (VIX) slowed considerably on Monday, as the fear index was rejected by overhead resistance in the 21-22 area. This region is home to a 52-week half-high and the index's 50-day moving average. On the options front, the single-session CBOE VIX put/call volume ratio rose from 0.51 on Friday to Monday's perch at 0.73. What's more, Monday's ratio was considerably higher than its 10-day average of 0.58.